According to the Red Cross, nearly 10% of Mongolia’s livestock have died since December.

The agency said it needed money to provide emergency food aid to more than 3,000 families who have lost the bulk of their herds and to help them restore or diversify their livelihoods.

“The needs are steadily growing as more and more herders face up to the reality that many of their animals are dying,” Ravdan Samdandobji, secretary-general of the Mongolian Red Cross, said in the statement.

“More and more people are left distraught and increasingly destitute.”

The BBC’s Chris Hogg, who is in Mongolia, says the weather is not expected to improve until mid May and herders say they expect the next few weeks to be the toughest yet this winter.